Bio-business awards, a first of its kind for biotechnology segment in India will be a major feature of the Bangalore Bio 2003. The awards will be will be given away for excellence in the areas of biotechnology and announced during the second day of the Bangalore Bio 2003 on April 16 during the Awards Night.

"We thought it was important for the biotech sector to have special awards and the Bangalore Bio 2003 was a good venue to institute it. The biotech sector''s sterling performance and its transformation into a competitive entity need to be recognised. The Bio-Business Awards is given away to those individuals and companies which, have the talent to take on the challenges and succeed in the global and domestic market," Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, head Vision Group on Biotechnology, government of Karnataka and chairman and managing director

Biocon India Group told Chronicle Pharmabiz.
There are six awards instituted for six different segments such as Bio-Entrepreneur of the Year, Bio-Product of the Year, Bio-Innovator of the Year, Bio-Investor of the Year, Bio-Exporter of the Year and Bio-Start-up of the Year.

The criteria of selection for the Bio-Entrepreneur of the Year is based on the success of the entrepreneur and his enterprise in terms of revenues, profit, employment and investment.

Under the category, Bio-Start-up of the Year, only companies less than three years old will be eligible. "In this award we are looking at the business plan of the company and the potential of its venture," informed Shaw. The Bio-Product of the Year will be selected on the basis of its patented product or an in-house developed product which has been a commercial success for the company.

The Bio-Innovator of the Year is for a company, which has been an active IPR (intellectual property rights) generator. Under the Bio-Investor of the Year, the judges will look out for a company, which has invested, maximum in biotechnology in the last two years. The Bio-Exporter of the Year will be chosen on the basis of the maximum exports either in service or in products.

The awards night scheduled for April 16, which is the second day of the biotech exposition, is sponsored by Rabo Bank, which has been closely gauging the biotech industry''s aggressive efforts to achieve growth and explore rewarding options.

The panel of judges for the Bio-Business awards will be chaired by Manju Sharma of department of biotechnology, government of India. The other members of the panel are Rana Kapoor, head, Rabo Bank, S R Nair head, Biotech Consortium India Limited, DB Inamdar, Karnataka minister for information technology and biotechnology.

The awards sculpted in bronze depict acrobats taking the form of a double helix. These are designed by a sculptor Romicon Revola from Bangalore. The design bears semblance to an academy award and there will also be a citation said Shaw.